That build you linked to:
- uses the USA version of PCPartPicker, so the price of each component will be different than in Canada (and usually cheaper even with the exchange rate)
- 16GB but no SSD is a terrible idea given how cheap a decent 120-256GB SSD is nowadays. I'd certainly opt for an SSD over the extra RAM. Adding more RAM later is always possible (and even easier than adding a new OS/boot/main drive). Also, some games take forever to load without an SSD while the extra RAM does nothing and to the best of my knowledge, 8GB is still more than good enough esp. for cheap builds like this. All of these modern cards - RX 480, 1050 Ti, etc are more than good enough to run modern games at pleasing rates. A few extra FPS isn't worth much once you've already hit 60+ FPS...
- mail-in rebates are notoriously difficult to actually get - even if you fill them in properly! A 'Don't count your chicken until they've hatched' sort of deal.
- Lastly, buying the cheapest item possible per category isn't always the best idea. Sometimes it's worth it to pay a little more for something considerably better. So I would rethink the $10 PC case... Cooling for example could take a hit. Also, you might not be able to fit as large a video card in the cheap case - limiting your future upgrades. The case they used above is pricey though, I agree - there are plenty of good options @ around CAD$50.

I would disagree with you about the 1050 Ti. Given the cheap prices of the Rx 470 and how powerful it is vs. the 1050 Ti, I'd just grab the 470. The 1050, 460, and 1050 Ti are more for off the shelf pre-builts with a 300w power supply.

Cheaper 480's and 1060's are also worth a look, although I'd steer clear of the 3gb 1060 myself. 3gb is just not enough anymore.

I agree with every other point you make however, especially about Mail in Rebates, which are mostly a sham imho.

With that case and PSU, why not get a 470 for $25-30 more? The system can handle it. Or, just drop the PSU to the Corsair CX450/550M and the Case to a 88R and save $60. She really is a beautiful case. Look at all that cable management room in the back...

I personally like Nvidia more than AMD, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to recommend their cards. The RX 480 and RX 470 are great budget options, and the 1050Ti feels like a bit of a letdown right now, at its current price.

although the 1050ti should be fine for 1080p gaming anyways.

True. It's ok for 1080p gaming, but the point is you can get so much more for your money. UserBenchmark states that for only $20 more, you can get 60%+ better gaming performance if you go AMD.

I agree, but with this particular build, you can shave off c osts on quite a few things, like the PSU and case for starters. This build is not very efficient in terms of cost per benefit. You can easily fit in $20 for a 470 by cutting down on less essential components elsewhere.

We don't include the OS because some people already have one, or choose to use something free like Linux. Honestly, we'd get complaints whether we added it or not, so it seems easier to just talk about balance of the core system components at a given price range. Note that we also don't list a mouse, keyboard or monitor as those are pretty personal choices that no matter what we'd select it wouldn't be "the right choice" depending on the person planning their build. And that's okay -- we love seeing folks customize our guides to fit their tastes.

Nothing to be sorry about -- it's a pretty reasonable question that comes up from time to time. Hope the video and guide help with your build!

If you have more questions or need help customizing the build further to suit a specific need or budget, be sure to ask on the forums or even on the guide's comment section. There's always folks happy to help you tweak your part list to get it just right.

Thanks for the feedback. We're not attempting to mislead, but you are correct -- we deliberately don't include the OS in our guide listings, choosing instead to focus on the core components for a given price point.

Looks like you've added the case using our custom part feature, which doesn't support compatibility checking. We have the Masterbox 5 in our case listings, though. The system builder wouldn't let you add it because it doesn't have a 5.25" bay for the optical drive you selected.

You might consider posting in the forums to get some more feedback or ideas on your build.

Good, but i would get the Asus H110M-E/M.2 Micro ATX LGA1151 motherboard for a bit cheaper and get 1x8gb ram for expandability and convenience. Also, if this is a gaming pc then i would pick a RX 470 or 480 as a video card. And if you want to cut down the price a little go for a Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Semi Modular power supply. But, this guys more professional than me, so yeah.

Very nice entry build. I actually just made a build like this two days ago, using parts from Micro Center's week long Black Friday. Been testing this 1050 ti and it's one hell of a card for 129.99 @ Newegg!!

Would it be wise to save up more for an i5 if I wish to future-proof my budget build? Even though the i3 has hyperthreading, it seems that dual core CPU's will soon be holding back performance in games in a few years.

I know I'm being picky, but there's no such thing as future-proof. =D

Hope this comment gave you a little bit of advice.

With this I would throw in a Pentium G3258 and Asus H81M-A mobo, then OC the Pentium to 4.3 ghz (done this and it's stable), then pour the money you saved into an EVGA GTX 1060 SC gpu. More FPS for the $$$.

In the past, that would've worked, but more games nowadays are using 4 or more cores and using them well. Plus, some games won't even start / run unless the system detect 4 cores (including virtual cores like hyperthreading) without a lot of inconvenient tweaking.

I agree that you can save money on this build to get a better GPU and stuff, but I feel like an i3-6100 is the minimum people should consider nowadays, with DX12 and Vulkan being more of a thing in the future.

DX12 can handle up to 6 cores for gaming, and Vulkan can handle more. 2 physical cores without hyperthreading just isn't enough nowadays, imho.